Hot bed
Hot bed turns up in 2 fields: farming, shop slang. Here is what it means to the people in each one.
Hot bed in farming
A glass-covered garden frame heated from below by decomposing organic matter.
Growers construct these low enclosures over a deep layer of fresh manure mixed with straw. As the manure composts, it releases steady, gentle heat upward through a layer of topsoil. This traditional method allows horticulturists to germinate seeds and force early vegetable growth weeks before the ambient soil temperatures rise.
"Shovel another foot of fresh horse muck into the base of the hot bed so we can get the early brassicas started."
Hot bed in shop slang
A sleeping arrangement where shift workers share the same bed at different times.
Hot bedding is a practice in continuous operations where a single bed is assigned to multiple workers on opposite shifts. As one worker wakes up to start their shift, another worker coming off duty takes over the bed. It maximizes limited space in tight living quarters like offshore rigs, ships and remote work camps.
"The rig was so overbooked for the shutdown that we had to hot bed for two weeks."